I became Catholic five years ago. This was a conscious decision that was made long after the "abuse scandal" was publicized. I have a number of reasons for this which I'll go into now.

All the people I dislike tend to hate the Church. The media hates the Church. Crazy fundies hate the Church. Vulgar people hate the Church.

I wanted to work on my life and I thought the structure of the Church would help. I challenged myself with, "I wonder how hard it would be to live as a Catholic." It seemed like a whim or curiosity.

The Church has clear teachings you can read, and a clear leadership. All of the interpretations are accessible online and there's a huge community of people discussing it. The knowledge and coherency of the Church is vastly greater than any other Christian denomination, or mainstream ideology. I kept looking up Catholic interpretations when I wanted the "most official" Christian stance instead of the half-baked opinions of a dissident.

I like the idea of Christian unity. I never really seriously considered other denominations. They all seemed silly by comparison.

Churches are beautiful. The Mass is beautiful. The music is beautiful.

I want to feel 100% sure I'm in good standing with God. I don't like how I feel when my soul is in a bad state.

Other religions seem foreign to me, and ultimately not as appealing to my values or my conception of God.

I'm sticking with the Church. I don't really care about its reputation. I've always been the sort to defend "the underdog". Being part of the Church is better than being part of mainstream society.